International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and

Science (IJAERS)
ISSN: 2349-6495(P) | 2456-1908(O)
Vol-8, Issue-4; Apr, 2021
Journal Home Page Available: https://ijaers.com/
Journal DOI: 10.22161/ijaers
Article DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijaers.84.10

Socioeconomic Profile of Distance Education Students:

Relations with permanence
Elizeth Gonzaga dos Santos Lima, Dionê Pereira de Souza, Fernando Cezar Vieira
Malange

Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso, UNEMAT, Brazil

Received: 18 Dec 2020; Abstract— It was proposed in this work to outline the interfering factors of the
Received in revised form: permanence and non-permanence of the students of the Pedagogy Course of
Distance Education, taking as reference the University of the State of Mato
22 Feb 2021;
Grosso – Unemat. The objective of this study was to analyze the profile of
Accepted: 25 Mar 2021; beginner students and graduates of the Pedagogy Degree Course of the class
Available online: 14 Apr 2021 2014/1 at UAB / Unemat, seeking to understand the factors that interfere in the
students permanence and non-permanence. To this end, we look for to map and
©2021 The Author(s). Published by AI
Publication. This is an open access article to know the socioeconomic profile of beginners and graduates, using the
under the CC BY license socioeconomic questionnaire answered at the time of registration by the
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). candidates, relating to the profile of the graduates. Thus, the results point out
that the profile of beginners contrasted with that graduates showed that the
Keywords— College education
students who remained are women (92.9%); browns and mulattos (59.5%); are
access. Permanence. Distance
over 30 years old (76%); are from families that have between one and four
education. Evasion.
people (83.96%); the family income range is from 3 to 10 minimum wages
(20.3%), that exercise paid activity on a part-time basis (up to 30 hours a week)
(40.09%) and chose the course by identification (41.04%). It was also evident
that the profile of students who gave up (did not remain) are men (7.1%), black
(9.9%); under 30 years old (24%); live with 5 or more people (9.44%); the
family income range is up to three minimum wages (79.2%); they work
eventually or they don't work (22,65). Throughout this job, it was understood
the needy to develop research with graduates of the UAB System to ascertain
the quality of the distance education policy.

I. INTRODUCTION search for a bigger reach of higher education, as well as for

Distance education (DE) is a model of teaching that has
been implemented in the occidental world since 1980. In
Brazil, the first distance graduation course was offered in
1995, by Federal University of Mato Grosso – UFMT. In
2006, by the Decreet n° 5800, of June 8 th, 2006, the Brazil
Open University System – UAB – was instituted, aimed at
the development of the distance education, with the
objective of expanding and interiorizing the offer of
courses and programs of higher education in Brazil. It was
the first great attempt of the Brazilian government in the
the modernization and democratization of the models
offered. This enlargement of spots and availability of poles
in places of difficult access created opportunities for many
people, but, at the same time, contributed for the increase
of the evasion problem, that already reached education in
all its levels. The data and references used in this study
point distance education to be necessary in the process of
expansion and democratization of higher education,
however, they also indicate a high evasion level, as it is
possible to observe in the Higher Education Census 2016

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Elizeth Gonzaga dos Santos Lima et al. International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science, 8(4)-2021
(44,76%) and also in Higher Education Census 2017
(34,65%). Distance education is among the modalities that
present a high level of non-permanence.
In this context, this paper searched to outline the factors
that interfere with permanence and non-permanence of
students in the Pedagogy Course of Distance Education,
taking as reference the State University of Mato Grosso
(Unemat), which began the offer of distance courses in
1999, and, in 2010, through the Directory of Management
of Distance Education (DEAD/Unemat), started offering
distance education linked to the UAB system. Thus, the
objective of this study was analyzing the profile of the
students (beginners and graduates) of the course of
bachelor degree in pedagogy of group 2014/1 from
UAB/Unemat, searching to understand the factors that
interfere with the permanence and non-permanence of
students. For that, in the methodology, the aim has been
mapping and getting to know the socioeconomic profile of
beginners and graduates, using as instrument the
socioeconomic questionnaire answered when the
candidates enrolled in the course, relating it with the
profile of the graduates, which was drawn through the
socioeconomic questionnaire applied by the authors
towards the students who were taking the last semester of
the course, the aforementioned graduates. The number of
students enrolled in the course of bachelor degree in
pedagogy through e-learning in the first semester of 2014
was of 349 (three hundred forty-nine), which was the
universe of this research. Among these, there were 212
(two hundred and twelve) graduate answers, that is,
60,74% of the enrolled students, which were the subject of
this study.
The first questionnaire applied to the beginners was
elaborated by the Entrance Exam Co-Ordinating
(COVEST), answered by the candidate when applying for
the exam; and the second questionnaire was elaborated by
the authors and applied to the graduates with the objective
of detailing personal and academic information and
identifying the causes of permanence and non-permanence
in the course, noticed by the answers of the active students
that had access to the Virtual Learning Environment
(VLE).
The questionnaire applied to the graduates was organized
in two sections. The first one was made up by multiple-
choice questions, that aimed at characterizing the profile of
the students; for that, there were the variables gender,
color, marital status, age, if they have children, who they
live with, how many members there are in the family,
income range, if the participant works in the education
area, if they have another high education formation, city
where they live, if they have internet access, if they were
motivated by the professors to continue the course. The
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second section was constituted by two open questions,
with the objective of collecting their perception about
positive and negative aspects of the course and gathering
change suggestions, in order to analyze the reasons that
took to permanence and non-permanence. The open
questions offered the respondents the possibility of
exposing their ideas. They were chosen with the intention
of deepening the analysis about the factors that interfere
with permanence.
This article is structured in three sections: in this first one
(the introduction), we present the study problem and the
methodology used; in the second one, we bring a
contextualization of distance education in Brazil and in the
State University of Mato Grosso (Unemat), without the
intention of going too deep; and in the third section, we
present the results and discussion, analyzing the profile of
the beginners and graduates of the distance education
pedagogy course – group 2014/1 – searching yet the voices
of the students, so, at last, we could be able to unravel
factors that interfere with permanence and non-
permanence. We conclude, in final considerations,
presenting the analytic synthesis of the results, evidencing
the importance of mapping the socioeconomic profile of
the students for the construction of programs and politics
of permanence in higher education.
II. DISTANCE EDUCATION: INITIAL
CONTEXTS
Distance education emerges in the context of public
politics in education, as a possibility of enlarging the board
of enrollments through the expansion in the number of
places in higher education, since the physical and
structural limitations become less relevant, considering
that a big part of the process of teaching and learning
happens in places chosen by the students themselves to
develop their courses. Distance education appears in the
process of democratization of higher education as a
strategy of expansion and enlargement of the number of
places.
So as to have an idea of the size of the expansion that
happened in the number of students beginning in distance
education, we recurred to the higher education census,
which presents the data of face-to-face and distance
education. According to the census, in 2001, there were, in
face-to-face education, 3.030.754 students enrolled. In the
same year, in distance education, there were 5.359. In
2017, the census brings the following numbers: face-to-
face enrollments – 6.529.681; distance education
enrollments – 1.756.982. In the period of 2001 to 2017, the
face-to-face education grew 215,45%, whereas distance
education grew 32.785,6%. These surprising distance
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education numbers demonstrate the strength that this and, yet, the Syndicate of Public Education Workers of
modality won in the last years, despite little demonstrating Mato Grosso (SINTEP). It was from the effective
the conditions with which the courses are offered, whether participation in this program that the Distance Education
in infrastructure, professor hiring, or the conditions with Division (DEAD) of Unemat was created, aiming at
which the pedagogical activities for the students happen. accomplishing activities of a distance education program
In this context, it is necessary to understand the for working teachers, in order to improve the levels of
dimensions of the democratization of the access to higher productivity and the quality of the education offered.
education, but also analyzing the warrantee of quality Unemat searched, starting in March 1999, the approval of
education when it comes to distance modalities. In this the merit of the “Political Administrative Project of the
search, we present, in table 1, the data of the census of Distance Education Division (DEAD)”, which defines the
graduation courses in distance higher education between decisions for the organization, implantation, and
2005 and 2017, as well as the number of beginners and implementation of infrastructure for offering courses in
graduates and the percentage of success throughout theses distance education modalities. This program gave origin to
years. We observe that the highest success rate was among the course of Full Bachelor Degree in Basic Education, 1st
the beginners of the year of 2006, which concluded in to 4th grade, in distance modality, implanted in Unemat in
2009, with percentage of 62,32%, being that the generation 1999, opportunity in which was created an infrastructure
that started in 2008 had the smallest percentage (32,73%). for providing autonomy in managing distance courses.
By calculating the average of success between the years of Offered in the campus of Nova Xavantina/Pedagogical
2005 and 2009, we found 49,31% and between 2010 and Pole of Nova Xavantiva and in the campus of Pontes e
2014, there was an average of 41,76%. If, on one hand, the Lacerda/Pedagogical Pole of Jauru, 424 and 491 places
number of beginners increased each year, the same did not were offered, respectively, in the period of 2000-2004, for
occur with the success rate, therefore, there was a working teachers. The courses offered were both for
significant variation, below 50%, starting with the teacher formation: Pedagogy Course: Bachelor Degree in
beginners of 2010, as it is possible to notice in table 1. Pedagogy – Basic Education – 1st to 4th grades
Table. 1 – Number of beginners and graduates by (Resolutions 9 and 10/2005 – CONSUNI) and Full
Generation in distance graduation courses in Brazil Bachelor Degree in Pedagogy: Teaching in Child
(2005-2017). Education (Resolution 011/2005 – CONSUNI), the latter
offered through an interinstitutional partnership, firmed by
Year Beginners Year Graduates Success Rate consortium Pró-Formar.
2005 127.014 2008 70.068 55,16% In 2008, with the adhesion of Unemat to the Open
2006 212.246 2009 132.269 62,32% University System of Brasil (UAB), the Co-Ordination of
2007 329.271 2010 144.553 43,9% UAB-Unemat was created (Order of Regulation n°
379/2010 UAB-Unemat – 10/1/2008 to 10/2/2010), which
2008 463.093 2011 151.552 32,73%
restructured the distance modality at Unemat, since, when
2009 332.469 2012 174.322 52,43% signing the Term of Technical Cooperation and
2010 380.328 2013 161.072 42,35% Commitment with UAB/Capes, DEAD had to adequate to
the exigences of the Federal Government Program, both in
2011 431.597 2014 189.788 43,97%
what concerned infrastructure and personal conditions, so
2012 542.633 2015 233.704 43,07% it would receive financial resources to invest in equipment
2013 515.405 2016 230.717 44,76% and furniture, as well as in the courses.
2014 727.738 2017 252.163 34,65% According to the data reported in the Management Report
2017-2021, DEAD/Unemat has a central administrative
Source: elaborated by the authours from the data of the
and pedagogical organization, destined to outlining
Higher Education Census (2005 -2017)
politics, planning, follow-up, and execution of actions in
the face-to-face support poles, located in strategic regions
In the state of Mato Grosso, the teacher formation, of the state, where face-to-face pedagogical activities are
considered as public politics, was expressed in the developed, being the place where the student meets up
Institutional Program of Teacher Qualification, involving with tutors and professors and where they also have access
the State University of Mato Grosso (Unemat), Federal to the library and labs, since, in the modality of teaching,
University of Mato Grosso (UFMT), State Secretary of the UAB pole is the physical reference of the institution.
Education (SEDUC), Municipal Secretaries of Education

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Elizeth Gonzaga dos Santos Lima et al. International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science, 8(4)-2021

Table 2 presents the number of enrollments in DE in the about the student flow in DE in Brazil. By analyzing these
period of 2010/2 to 2014/1, showing a recurring data, it is possible to say that the entrance was
enlargement in the expansion and success rate that came democratized with the implantation of the DE modality,
against the similar expansion aforementioned, in table 1, but not the permanence and conclusion. Let us see:
Table 2 – Number of enrollments, level of conclusion, evasion, and retention of enrolled students 2010/2 to 2014/1.

Course/year Enrollments Conclusio Evasion Dead Retention

n
Ba. Degree in Physics – 2010/2 291 10,31% 84,88% 00 4,81%
Biological Sciences – 2010/2 490 23,34% 18,39% 0,21% 58,06%
Ba. in Public Administration –
378 34,92% 53,44% O,26% 11,38%
2010/2
Ba. in Public Administration –
496 28,43% 53,64% 00 16,94%
2012/1
Ba. in Public Administration –
402 34,32% 43,29% 0,25% 22,14%
2012/2
Ba. in Public Administration –
148 12,73% 29.98% 00 57,29%
2014/1
Letters – English – 2014/1 50 30% 70% 00 00
Letters – Spanish- 2014/1 98 38,78% 43,88% 00 17,34%
Ba. Degree in Pedagogy – 2014/1 349 48,14% 25,21% 00 22,64%
Source: elaborated by the authors from the research data.

When presenting the conclusion, evasion, dead, and
retained rates by course, according to Table 2, it is possible
to observe that, in the Bachelor Degree in Physics, starting
in the second semester of 2010, there was an evasion rate
of 84,88%. In the graduate percentage, it is possible to
highlight the Bachelor Degree in Pedagogy 2014/1, with
48,70%. The course that presents the highest retention rate
is Biological Sciences 2010/2, with 58,06%.
It is possible to verify that there were students that passed
away: in the course of Biological Sciences, there was 1
beginner, in the second semester of 2010, and another one,
who started in the second semester of 2012. Also draws
our attention the course of Letters (English) 2014/1, in
which there were 30% graduates and 70% evaded students
and no retained students.
In the research conducted by Nodari (2016), there are
average levels of face-to-face education at Unemat for
beginners in 2009: conclusion 27%, evasion 37%, and
retention 32%. These levels of face-to-face education, if
compared to the ones of distance education courses of
DEAD/Unemat, show a very similar reality. For example,
we presented the data for the Baccalaureate in Public
Administration 2012/1 face-to-face course, presented by
Nodari (2016): up to the second semester of 2014, it was
the course with the highest number of enrollments at
Unemat: 496, with conclusion levels of 28,43%, evasion of
53,64%, and retention of 16,94%. It is possible to observe
that the average of conclusion of distance courses is
equivalent to face-to-face education at Unemat, however,
the number of evaded students is higher in distance
education.
Considering the high expansion of offer of places by
Unemat through the UAB system, in DE modality, and
that this expansion happened with a bigger effervescence
in the entrance exam of 2013, starting the courses in
2014/1, we searched, in the next section, to present
indicators of the socioeconomic profile of the beginning
students and the graduates of the Pedagogy course, group
of 2014/1, and also to present the voices of the graduates
with the object of analyzing the interferences of
permamence and non-permanence in the course.
1. Profile of beginning students and graduates of the
Pedagogy DE Course – Group 2014/1: searching
for factors that interfere with permanence
In the boards and figures that follow, it is possible to see
the common questions referring to questionnaires 11 and
1
Questionnaire answered at the moment of the inscription
for the entrance exam.

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Elizeth Gonzaga dos Santos Lima et al. International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science, 8(4)-2021
22 and the profile of the students, answered by the
academics of the DE Bachelor Degree Pedagogy Course at
DEAD/Unemat – Group of 2014/1. The objective of
comparing the two questionnaires consisted in the analysis
of the profile of the beginners and in the relation of this
with the profile of the graduates, observing the social,
economic, and personal characteristics at the beginning of
the course and at its end. This analysis has made possible
to notice the profile of the students that remained and the
profile of the students that quit, making it possible to
outline the factors that probably influenced this situation.
2. Gender: women dominate the entrance and the
conclusion
According to the Higher Education Census of 2014, year
in which the data for this research started being collected,
the enrollment for face-to-face courses and distance
courses in Brazil are represented by 55,7% of female
students, while male students represent 44,3%.
Considering that the objective of the study are students
that were approved in the specific entrance exam 2014/1 of
the Bachelor Degree DE Pedagogy Course, it was verified
that, in relation to the variable gender, 89,57% are female
and 10,43% are male. Among the graduates, 92,9% are
female and 7,1% are male, according to figure 1.
Gender
Fig.1 - Percentage of female and male students in the
Bachelor Degree DE Pedagogy Course of DEAD/Unemat
– Group of 2014/1
2
Questionnaire Applied to the students, available at the
VLE between 11/19/2017 and 1/5/2018.
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3. Color: black students own the smallest conclusion
level
Unemat, in the specific edict 2014/1, with the politics of
affirmative action, reserved 25% of the places in
graduation courses for candidates who were self-declared
black or mulatto, through the Ethnical-Racial Integration
and Inclusion Program – PIIER. 40% of the places were
destined for wide competition and 35% of the total amount
of places were destined for candidates from public schools.
It is possible to understand that 15,34% of black people
entered the course and 9,9% of them concluded, indicating
the giving up of black people. The percentage of people
that considered themselves mulatto in the entrance exam
was of 3,07% and, among the graduates, 1,04%. These
data show that there was a higher percentage of giving up
among black and mulatto people.
Color
Fig.2 – Color of beginners and graduates.
According to the IBGE Census in 2010, black and mulatto
people formed the biggest populational group in Brazil,
with 50,7%, while 47,8% identify themselves as white
people. For Ristoff (2014), Brazilian education as a whole
is far for reflecting the populational profile, since, in
percentual terms, the students in Brazil are 17% whiter
than Brazilian society. In Mato Grosso, according to IBGE
2010, 60% of the population belongs to the group of black
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Elizeth Gonzaga dos Santos Lima et al. International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science, 8(4)-2021
and mulatto people and 37,5% identified themselves as
white people.
In the studies conducted by Ristoff (2014), the whitest
courses in Brazilian graduation are in the health area:
veterinarian medicine, medicine, and odontology, with
percentages of white people superior to 60%, while
Brazilian population declared as white is, according to
IBGE 2010, 48%. Thus, it is possible to understand that
people considered mulatto and black in our country search
for bachelor degree courses, while white people look for
baccalaureate courses.
It is important to highlight that the research conducted at
DEAD/Unemat meets up with what was said in Ristoff’s
paper (2014), since, for the bachelor degree course in
pedagogy 2014/1, in the questionnaire answered by the
graduates, the highest percentage of mulatto and black
people, who are considered quota students, according to
Resolution n° 200/2004 – CONEPE.
4. Age: young people over 30 have higher
conclusion rates
When analyzing the variable “age” for beginners and
graduates, according to Figure 3, we verify that the
beginners who are over 30 years old correspond to
49,08%. On the other hand, graduates over 30 correspond
to 76%. These data show that the people who evade the
course are, in a large number, people who are 30 years old
or less.
Age
Fig.3 – Age of beginners and graduates
Source: elaborated by the authors according to data from
the research.
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Answers to Q2 confirm what was answered in Q1, since
most respondents chose that they are over 30. In the pole
of Comodore, there were 3,23% who chose the option
“under 20”. It is important to highlight the pole of Campo
Verde, where 93,94% answered being over 30 years old.
The smallest pole where respondents chose the option of
being over 30 was Nova Xavantina’s, with 57,89%. The
rest of the students chose being between 21-30 years old,
29,63%. These data meet up with the Higher Education
Census 2016, when affirming that the average of the
graduates of distance education is 34 years old.
According to the Higher Education Census 2016, the
average age of enrollment of face-to-face students is 21
years old, while the average age of distance education
students is 28 years old. The entering age for face-to-face
students is 18 years old, while for distance education it is
27 years old. When it comes to graduates of face-to-face
education, the average is of 23 years old, and, for distance
education, the average is 34 years old.
The DEAD/Unemat data correspond to the data of the
Higher Education Census 2016 in all of the researched
poles. The highest percentage of students approved in the
bachelor degree in pedagogy DE course chose the option
of being over 30.
5. Marital status: married students are the ones that
most conclude the course
In relation to the general graph about the variable “marital
status”, 49,69% of the beginners of the course answered
being single, 44,48% answered being married, the
divorced ones are 4,91%, and the widowed ones are
0,92%. In relation to the graduates, 25,94% answered
being single, the married ones are 64,62%, the divorced
ones are 7,55%, and the widowed ones are 1,89%, as it is
possible to verify in Figure 4.
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Elizeth Gonzaga dos Santos Lima et al. International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science, 8(4)-2021

4,1% is divorced, disunited or legally separated, 3% is

widowed and 45,6% consider themselves as single people.

6. Number of family members who live in the

same house
In the answers of the beginners about how many people
live with them, 58,6% answered that 3 or 4 people live
with them. Among the graduates, the highest number live
with 1 or 2 people, with 42,92%. Among the beginners, the
number of people who live with more than 5 or 6 people
was of 9,51% and with more than 6 people was of 3,98%.
In conclusion, this percentage for 5 or 6 people was of
7,08% and, for more than six people, 2,36%, as
demonstrated in Figure 5.
How many family members live with you

Fig.4 – Marital Status of the beginners and graduates.

Source: elaborated by the authors from data of the
research.

In 2014/1, among the students approved for the bachelor

degree DE course in pedagogy, a great majority identify
itself as single, with highlight to the pole of Cáceres, in
which 64% of the students approved identified as single.
The highest percentage of married students was found in
the pole of Campo Verde, with 57,69% of the approved
students. The percentage of divorced students is higher in
the pole of Comodoro, 10%. About the number of
widowed students, there are 2% in Juína, 2% in
Comodoro, and 3,8% in Campo Verde.
In the questionnaire answered by the graduates, in almost
all of the poles, more than 50% chose the option
“married”, highlighting the pole of Cáceres, with 72,22%.
Fig.5 – General: number of family members who live
The highest number of divorced students is in the pole of
with you.
Juína, with 55,56%. There are 6,06% widowed students in
Campo Verde, 3,22% in Comodoro and 2,78% in Sapezal. Source: elaborated by the authors according to data from
According to the data of PNAD/2014, in Mato Grosso, the research.
47,3% of the population over 15 years old is married 3, According to the data of IBGE (2016, p. 98), the average
number of people per household in Brazil was of 3,5 in
2005, reducing to 3,0, in 2015. In Middle-West, the
3
In this, are gathered all the people in the following average, in 2015, was of 3,19 people per household.
situations: consensual union, civil union, religious union,
civil and religious union, with different genders and of the
same gender.

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 Elizeth Gonzaga dos Santos Lima et al. International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science, 8(4)-2021
7. Average monthly family income rage below 3
minimum wages
Among the graduates, the highest percentage, 84,58%,
has an average income between 1 and 3 minimum
wages. Among the graduates, for the income up to 3
minimum wages, the percentage is of 79,2%. The
beginners who receive between 3 and 10 minimum
wages are 14,72%. Among the graduates, the percentage
is of 20,3%, as it is possible to verify in the following
figure:
What is your family’s income rate?
Fig.6 – General: income rate of your family.
Source: elaborated by the authors according to the research
data.
According to the answers of Enade (2016), 47,6% of
graduation students in Brazil have monthly family income
of 1,5 to 4,5 minimum wages. In the studies conducted by
Corbucci (2014), the income may be pointed as the main
factor for academic performance and, when it comes to
entrance, the income may constitute a barrier in continuing
the studies for students who need to work.
8. Do you perform any kind of paid activity: students
who work
About paid activities, 33,1% said that they perform part
time (up to 30 hours). Among the graduates, this
percentage is of 40,09%. The ones that work full time are
37,4% for beginners and 37,26% for graduates. The ones
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who say that do not work are 22,8% of beginners and, for
graduates, they correspond to 17,93%. Inside the aspect
“paid activity”, it is possible to say, according to Figure 7,
that there was higher permanence of students who work
part time (up to 30 hours a week).
Do you perform any paid activity?
Fig.7 – Performance of paid activity.
Source: elaborated by the authors with the data from
the research.
9. Reasons for choosing the course
About the variable “reason for choosing the course”,
45,7% of beginners say that they chose the pedagogy
DE course due to work market. On the other hand,
graduates who chose this option were 26,42%. A
factor that draws attention for beginners is that 25,2%
of them chose the bachelor degree pedagogy course
for improving an activity they already perform. This
shows that this person already works in the education
area and the course will help better develop the
function.
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Elizeth Gonzaga dos Santos Lima et al. International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science, 8(4)-2021
I chose the course because
Fig.8 – Reasons for choosing the course.
Source: elaborated by the authors according to the data
from the research.
Laham (2016), in his studies, has reached the following
conclusion regarding the choice of students for the DE
pedagogy course: in face of the manifestation of students
and the frequency of answers that point the factors “time”
and “autonomy for studies”, it has been evidenced that the
main factors to influence the choice for the course and
modality are traversed by the rationality and pragmatism.
These characteristics show the intention of effectively
concluding the chosen course.
To sum up, the variables of the socioeconomic profile of
beginners and graduate students indicate:
a) In relation to the variable gender, the highest giving-up
rate was of men, who, in the entrance, represented 10,43%
and, in the conclusion, this percentage fell to 7,1%;
b) In relation to color, the highest giving-up rate was of
black people who, in the beginning, corresponded to
15,34% and, in the conclusion, this percentage was of only
9,9%.
c) In relation to the variable age, the ones that most
remained were the ones over 30 years old. In the entrance,
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they were 49,08% and, when concluding, the ones over 30
corresponded to 76%. On the other hand, the beginners
under 20 years old corresponded to 11,66%. In the
conclusion, this percentage corresponded to 0,5%.
d) In relation to marital status, the ones that most gave up
were the single ones: in the beginning, they corresponded
to 49,69% and when concluding, 25,94%;
e) In relation to family members, the ones that most gave
up were the ones with the highest number of family
members: the beginners with 3 or more people in the
family were 58,6%. The ones with 5 or 6 members were
9,51% and with more than 6 members, 3,98%. Among the
graduates, these percentages fell: 3 to 4 members, 41,04%,
5 or 6 members, 7,08%; more than 6 members, 2,36%;
f) In relation to family income, the one that most gave up
are the ones that receive between 1 and 3 minimum wages.
In the beginning, this group corresponded to 14,72% and,
among the graduates, 20,3%.
g) In relation to paid activity, the ones that most remained
were the ones that work part time (up to 30 hours a week).
In the beginning, they corresponded to 33,1%; the
graduates corresponded to 40,09%.
h) In relation to the reasons for choosing the course, the
highest giving-up rate was for the ones who chose the
course because of work market: in the beginning, they
corresponded to 45,7% and among the graduates, 26,42%.
In order to go deeper into these results, we analyzed the
sayings of the students, aiming at clarifying the factors that
interfere with permanence. The answers were crossed with
the result of the analysis of the profile of the beginners
over the graduates, aiming at building the categories that
indicate factors that interfere with permanence and non-
permanence in the course.
The analysis of the sayings of the research subjects were,
firstly, systematized, by using Nvivo 114 software, by
Microsoft, which gives support to researches. It was used
for the creation of word clouds, having the specificity of
creating clouds with the 100 most expressed words in the
discourse of the interviewees.
These clouds were created with reference to the “nodes”5
created for the crossing of the data obtained through the
questionnaire sent to the students of the bachelor degree
DE pedagogy course enrolled in 2014/1.
4
The software was dowloaded as a trial version, with free
license for 14 days. Available at:
https://www.qsrinternational.com/nvivo/trial/trial-
portuguese. Access in: July 2018.
5
Term used in Nvivo 11 to name the interposition of the
analysis of the crossed data.
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Elizeth Gonzaga dos Santos Lima et al. International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science, 8(4)-2021
The first question raised with the students was about the
suggestions to improve the course in order to make
permanence possible. From the graduate’s answers, a
cloud with the 100 most evident words was made.
Fig.9 – Map of the suggestions of the graduates for the
bachelor degree DE pedagogy course aiming at
permanence
Source: Cloud elaborated by the authors through Nvivo 11
software.
In order to understand the cloud, the words that had the
10. The building of the categories: the factors that
most highlight were: face-to-face, classes, professors,
tutors. Among the highlights, the conjunction “more” is
always related to the enlargement of an aspect of the
course, such as: more classes, faster answers, more
interaction, clearer answers, as we can see on the
following sayings:
Q1. “More face-to-face classes”.
Q2. “For me, it is very good”.
Q3. “We should have faster answers in order to clarify our
doubts”.
Q4. “Despite being a distance course, we should have
more face-to-face classes, so we could have more access to
the professors”.
Q5. “Faster answers from the tutors, professors, and about
the contents”.
Q6. “Facilitating the communication between professors
and students”.
Q7. “I suggest the availability of a free phone line for
clarifying the doubts of the academics immediately. The
publicizing, since the beginning of the course, of
complementary activities that will be accepted, since, in
our course, we only had this information in the beginning
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of the 8th semester and the time was short, because
courses we had took with this purpose were disregarded.
Q8. “There should be more classes at the poles, because
this is one of the moments in which we learn the most”.
Q9. “More interaction of the professor/tutor with the
students”.
Q10. “Clearer and faster answers from distance
professors”.
Q11. “More face-to-face classes and more quickness in
returning the posted assignments”.
Q12. “I would like very much that there was printed
material and that there could be more face-to-face classes”.
In face of the suggestions mentioned above, it is noticeable
that many students of the bachelor degree DE pedagogy
course need more face-to-face meetings. Regarding the
other question that they most suggested, faster answers
from professors and tutors, it seems that the students’
questions take a lot of time to be answered and, by their
sayings, there are indications that this delay interferes with
the learning, causing demotivation about the course and,
consequently, leading to giving up. Let us see, as follows,
the synthesis with the building of the categories that
emerged about the factors that may interfere with
permanence.
interfere with permanence
Based on similarity criteria of content, logics, and
pertinence, as oriented by the procedures of content
analysis proposed by Bardin (1977), two categories
emerged: the first one was “Reasons for permanence”,
highlighting flexibility of time for studying, good
professional perspective, quality, and gratuitousness of the
course; and the second category was “Reasons for non-
permanence”, highlighting the lack of fast answers by
tutors and professors, the lack of face-to-face classes and
the feeling of loneliness (interactivity).
In the category “Reasons for permanence”, it was possible
to observe that, for the students that remained, most
(37,26%) presented that factor “time flexibility” as the
main reason for permanence, followed by quality and
gratuitousness of the course (34,91%). The evocations of
the students evidence that the choice for the distance
modality would be due to the freedom of choice of time
for studies. However, during the verification of the
answers presented, it was possible to understand that this
reason was not determinant for all of the students.
According to the relates of the graduates and the analysis
of the socioeconomic profiles, the time, or the lack of it, is
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Elizeth Gonzaga dos Santos Lima et al. International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science, 8(4)-2021
a determining factor both for permanence and non-
permanence of students, who affirm that the responsibility
of several things to do and the delay in the answers from
some tutors and professors make it difficult, for the
student, to plan and follow an organization of time for
studying and they also say that conciliating studies with
daily things to do is very difficult, and it takes a lot of
discipline to prioritize time for studies.
The results about the socioeconomic profile of the
beginners and graduates evidenced that 64,6% of
participants declared being married, 85,4% affirmed
having between 1 and 4 kids, and 77,4% perform paid
activities from 30 to 40 hours a week, parallelly to their
studies. Let us see the answers of the graduates about the
difficulties they found to keep their studies, for example,
Q2: “Sometimes, the answers from tutors and professors
took too long, test were very difficult, and there were way
too many assignments requested by the professors and not
enough time to do them”; and Q3. “Professors took too
long to give answers about an assignment; questionnaires
with mistakes; delays in making grades for tests and
assignments available”.
According to Palloff and Pratt (2004), DE provides
students with the possibility of studying anywhere
anytime. This allows students to keep on working full time
and give attention to their families. However, in researches
conducted by Vargas (2004), Moura-Walter (2006), and
Oliveira (2007), it has been demonstrated that conciliating
studies, work, and family is still one of the greatest
difficulties found by students.
Regarding the category “Reasons for non-permanence”,
the reasons that were most evidenced are related to the
delay in answers from professors and tutors (39,23%); lack
of face-to-face classes (22,10%); and the feeling of
loneliness (13,81%). These subcategories may be
presented as the factors that lead students to give up the
DE pedagogy course.
The subcategory “feeling of loneliness” is also related to
the matter of time and was related by 25 respondents,
which corresponds to 13,81% of graduates: “studying
alone, study time management”. For Fávero and Franco
(2006), the loneliness and the lack of interaction between
professors and students and among students themselves
may lead to a higher level of evasion. For Romão (2009),
not all students have enough maturity to face by
themselves and in loneliness a series of responsibilities
that the distance studying embraces. The “lonely” hereby
mentioned is not equivalent to the lack of companionship
or to the brutal loneliness, but to the lack, for further than
immediate contacts, of interaction, dialogue, and
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collaboration among the subjects involved in the process,
missing interactivity (ROMÃO, 2009).
In this subcategory, the feeling of being lonely, let us look
at the following answer of a student: Q7. “it takes a lot of
reading and doing the activities mostly on your own,
because that doubts that came up took a long time to be
answered and there were a lot of subjects that barely
opened, we barely had time to read the material posted,
and the time was already expiring to post the activities”.
Let us see that “being lonely” means the difficulties of
interaction with professors, tutors, and the colleagues
themselves.
In the manifestations of the graduates, it was possible to
evidence that, despite the use of interactive tools in the
learning platform of the course and the face-to-face
meetings in the poles, there is a feeling of loneliness,
which may indicate that these interaction tools are not
enough or do not work properly. For Palloff and Pratt
(2004), the problem of the loneliness is caused by the
quality of the interaction and a quality interaction is
fundamental to avoid the students to give up the course. It
is necessary a good interaction between colleagues of the
course and between students and tutors for the formation
of a virtual learning community and the proximity between
tutors and students makes them (students) not feel lonely
and increases the opportunity of success in the studies,
decreasing the giving-up. About the construction of a
learning community, Palloff and Pratt (2004) highlight that
the bigger the attention there is for the development of a
sense of community, the more the students tend to
continue the course until the end. If the students believe
that they “are in this together”, the possibility of retention
will increase, because the feeling of isolation will
decrease, independently of how difficult the studied
subject is. The students start having the feeling that there is
someone who understands them.
In this same context, Mourão et al. (2014) day that there
are behavioral actions that can be adopted by tutors and
professors in order to minimize or eliminate the feeling of
virtual loneliness in the learning environment, which may
lead to discouragement and abandonment of the course by
the student. The actions to which the authors refer relate to
conduction and evaluation directresses for assessment
activities in the course, stablishing a pattern of answer time
and feedback for students within 24 hours.
According to the relates of Mourão et al. (2014), it is
necessary to foment the presence of students in the
discussion forums and other asynchronous interaction tools
available in the learning platform, so that presence occurs.
It is necessary agility from the tutors to give back
feedbacks which would be a way to favor a more
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Elizeth Gonzaga dos Santos Lima et al. International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science, 8(4)-2021
individual and effective follow-up of the activities posted
in the platform, minimizing the feeling of loneliness of the
students.
III. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS: QUESTIONS
FOR CONTINUITY
To sum up, the profile analysis of the beginners contrasted
with the graduates’ evidenced that the students that
remained are women (92,9%); mulattos (59,5%); over 30
years old (76%); from families that have between one and
four people (83,96%); with family income around 3 to 10
minimum wages (20,3%); who perform paid activity part
time (up to 30 hours a week) (40,09%); and who chose the
course by identification (41,04%). It was still evidenced
that the profile of the students who gave up (did not
remain) are men (7,1%); black people (9,9%); under 30
years old (24%); who live with 5 or more people (9,44%);
the rate of the family income is up to three minimum
wages (79,2%); work eventually or do not work (22,65%).
We highlight in the results of the profile of the students
that did not remain the fact that black students give up
more than white students; young people give up more, and
the ones who do not work full time also give up more.
There are no more answers for these questions in this
study, which points at the need of continuity and
deepening, but also indicates the need of elaborating
politics and actions of permanence focused on theses
publics.
The analysis of the voices of graduates evidenced that the
factors that interfere with non-permanence of students are,
in synthesis, related to the matter of time and feeling of
loneliness in the studies, understood as the lack of
interaction. Here, there is a contradiction that also opens
up possibilities for new studies, since some of the factors
that lead to entering a DE course in the lack of time and
conditions to take the graduation course face-to-face; on
the other hand, students say, in this study, that some
factors that interfere with permanence are lack of time for
dedicating to DE activities and the loneliness to study.
According to the students, the lonely study, pointed by
them as the lack or difficulty to interact with professors,
tutors, and colleagues, causes discouragement. It is
necessary encouragement from colleagues, professors,
tutors, and, in this sense, the face-to-face meetings are of
fundamental importance, reason that may have taken
students to suggest more face-to-face classes.
In this study, it has been identified the importance of
mapping the socioeconomic profile of beginning students
and graduates, in order to make a follow-up of students at
risk of non-permanence. This knowledge of the profile
should contribute for the elaboration of politics focused on
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making possible the permanence of students and should be
directed at the group with the profile that presents the
highest probability of giving up.
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